Wednesday 4th November 2026, 9.20am (day 5,550)
A limited palette, I admit. Nice sunlight, autumn leaves, moment with no traffic. No complaints about the weather but can I take my Christmas holiday yet? Oh well.
Asia House
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Urban scene
Over the road
Tuesday 3rd November 2026, 1.05pm (day 5,549)
No great adventures today: this is taken from my front doorstep. Three photos in a row from Hebden Bridge for the first time since July, in fact. Going ‘old-fashioned’ with the colour scheme does seem to work for the Victorian housing of the local neighbourhood. The number on the lamppost is the only anachronism.
Market Street
Monday 2nd November 2026, 5.15pm (day 5,548)
Ho hum, it’s November. Pick from one of these two reactions: a) “I can’t believe it’s November already, where’s the year gone etc. etc.” or b) “what do you mean there’s still two months of 2026 to go?”. Either way, wherever the ice cream van zipping out of shot to the left has been, their being out today could be considered somewhat ambitious.
The annual dose of fencing
Tuesday 27th October 2026, 10.20am (day 5,542)
The open space between Manchester Cathedral, Victoria Station and the National Football Museum is called Cathedral Gardens but it’s not a ‘garden’ in any meaningful sense of the word and for at least half the year seems to be taken over by some corporate operation or other. Right now, it’s time to construct the annual ice rink, because, of course, we must all be inculcated into the idea of Christmas, even though it’s still October. So up goes the fencing, because it can.
Dismal and dark
Tuesday 20th October 2026, 10.25am (day 5,535)
This shot captures the drizzle but it doesn’t capture quite how dim and dismal it was at 10.25 this morning in Manchester. A thoroughly depressing day, and the clocks haven’t even gone back yet. Was work itself any better? Mmm, well, bits of it, I suppose. Mainly the bits done online, when I was somewhere else, at least in spirit.
Sunday morning on the canal
Sunday 18th October 2026, 9.45am (day 5,533)
I admit there are times when my fantasies of both downsizing and drifting lead, perhaps even logically, to thoughts of spending the rest of my days on one of these. But I’d miss the bathroom too much. Oh yeah, and central heating. Nevertheless, these thoughts do come, particularly on pleasant Sunday mornings before it has got too cold.
Misty valley
Friday 16th October 2026, 8.15am (day 5,531)
It’s that time of year where it can’t decide whether it’s warm or cold. Hence, this mist, which sort of springs from the boundary between the two states. The question of whether or not we should turn on the central heating is more of an economic than a climatic question, however.
Somewhere in Halifax
Monday 12th October 2026, 9.25am (day 5,527)
Lately, if it’s Monday morning and I’m in Halifax, I am probably walking down to town after having returned the hire car, a route that passes a range of housing, from bourgeois to more basic. This view can’t have changed much in decades. Yes, I know it’s a little blurred, but I’m going for some kind of archaic but otherwise indefinable quality.
The mill and the mares’ tails
Wednesday 7th October 2026, 11.00am (day 5,522)
Had I posted this on the Wednesday or the morning after I would have had to question the notion that this extensive display of cirrus presaged a change in the weather, for the worse. But sure enough, Thursday night and Friday morning have just been pretty revolting, so there you have it. Autumn does seem to be here, in some form or other.
No way through
Tuesday 6th October 2026, 8.10am (day 5,521)
Nothing shall get through the Red Screen of Doom. Behind, a car park and some undefined ‘businesses’ may be ‘open as usual’ but we cannot know this for sure: these things may as well exist in another dimension.
